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tmdblya t1_j6lbhzj wrote

Read King Leopold’s Ghost

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echidna_admirer t1_j6mkc8o wrote

For anyone unfamiliar, the book is named for this poem excerpt, written upon his death:

>Listen to the yells of Leopold's ghost
Burning tonight for his hand-maimed host
Hear how the demons chuckle and yell
Cutting his hands off down in Hell.

King Leopold assigned Congolese natives a quota of rubber production. Failure to meet his quota was punishable by death, as was stealing from the military presence. He ordered his military units to collect the hands from those they killed, to prove they were using any spent bullets to kill Congolese and not to hunt or hoard for rebellion. Instead, military personnel would hunt (to get fresh meat instead of rations), steal and sell supplies, or just hang out instead of collecting rubber dropoffs from the locals, and then kill Congolese for their hands as explanation. This created a black market for hands, where the Belgian troops would pay Congolese raiding parties to kill villagers and collect hands, which became a sort of currency. Initially, non-lethal punishments were all about whipping. After the black market arose, punishment became about hands; if you were a man, they wouldn't want to cut off your hands (else you couldn't produce rubber), they'd cut off your children's hands, to both punish you and score more hands to sell/trade.

The most famous image of the period is Alice Seeley Harris's portrait of a man named Nsala, who sits gazing at the hand of his five-year-old daughter, severed as punishment for low rubber production.

There are more than 20 statues of Leopold in Belgium, and they are now regularly vandalized with the phrase "Hear how the demons chuckle and yell, cutting his hands off down in Hell."

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ancientevilvorsoason t1_j6ml7ha wrote

His statue got dropped in the drink a couple years back. I was very happy to hear that Belgium is finally starting to reasses the topic.

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Lorpedodontist t1_j6p17jp wrote

This is important to understand.

The Belgians basically levied a tax on the population to produce rubber, and to enforce it, they hired African slavers, who after the slave trade ended, continued using brutal practices to extract as much wealth for themselves as they could.

The problem was really just how cruel people could be to other people. I don't think the Europeans actually understood just how bad things had gotten. They just cared that the rubber kept coming to fuel rapid industrialization in Europe.

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dressageishard t1_j6o1rx0 wrote

Oh, my. That's too gruesome to grasp or process. This was done to the children? King Leopold should have been hanged for these atrocities. I have never understood the power of royalty. 😭😭

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MiffyCurtains t1_j6oc435 wrote

Horrifying. As bad as it gets...

And he never even once set foot in that country.

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Dolly_gale t1_j6lcj5t wrote

I picked up a copy after seeing several redditors mention it. An excellent book about a very grim subject.

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